Chapter 467 - 458: Return_1

"Dead?"

Lin Ju was at the Aerospace Development Committee when he saw the message that suddenly popped up on his phone, and he was utterly shocked.

"How could he die? Why did he die now?"

Pacing back and forth in his office, Lin Ju reopened the news photo.

In the photo were two small crowds: one was a group of bodyguards performing emergency rescue and trying to prevent further attacks on Kishimoto, and the other was a group of people subduing the assassin who couldn’t move.

The latter had medium-length hair and, with the camera scattered beside him, looked like a very ordinary magazine journalist or cameraman, apparently having given up struggling.

It’s only 2017! Has the butterfly effect become this severe?

It seems nothing of the sort has happened in the Island Country... except for the early disposal of nuclear wastewater. Could that be it?

Just then, Academician She hurriedly pushed the door and entered. Seeing Lin Ju’s reaction, he asked:

"You already know?"

"Just saw it. How could such a thing happen all of a sudden?"

Academician She shook his head and sighed:

"Who knows what those people are thinking? The Huayin Conference was full of twists and turns. Looks like it will be interrupted again soon.

"..."

It seemed that Academician She was just a bit surprised since, in theory, this matter shouldn’t have had any connection with the aerospace sector.

"By the way, I’m here to give you some good news in advance. Now we can consider this a double blessing:

The Modu City Tesla’s gigafactory is cancelled, and the project is completely halted. A piece of the new energy electric vehicle market is up for grabs again."

"Ah?"

The news today was more absurd one after another, making Lin Ju wonder if he was still dreaming. The Tesla gigafactory was a crucial support for Tesla, and Ma had personally made many trips. How could it so easily be scrapped?

There must be a problem with this world!

...

Texas.

"Thank you, we appreciate Tesla’s efforts to address our unemployed population, and everything will be better because of what you do."

The Mayor of Arlington City, the police department, and the local media were surrounding Musk, constantly offering their praises and compliments.

The reason was simple: on America’s barren landscape of manufacturing, Tesla was planning to build a gigafactory!

Not just any ordinary car factory, but one that could employ over 15,000 workers, with an annual output of 200,000 vehicles after the start of production and an expansion plan to reach 500,000 in the long run.

Around this gigafactory, a series of component suppliers would settle down, along with the local infrastructure, living facilities, and at least 50,000 to 100,000 job opportunities, which was an absolute boost to the annually rising unemployment rate.

Although John had promised $800 billion in social security funds when he took office, which was gradually being realized, and the unemployed were receiving some money, there was a vast difference between relief funds and stable jobs.

Young people with jobs spent their days diligently working and didn’t take to the streets as potential causes of instability, nor did they have the energy to become potential criminals in the night. Their lives were full, spawning a plethora of other pursuits, which could sustainably boost consumption, improving the operations of other industries.

A job could solve not just the unemployment rate but also the crime rate, the level of public safety, city sanitation, and many other benefits.

When the mayor of Arlington City, William Dieser, learned that Tesla was considering placing its originally Modu City-based mega factory in his area, he was so overjoyed he almost cried, and he went to welcome Musk upon his arrival.

Arlington was also one of the major cities in Texas with a decent industrial foundation. General Motors had opened an automobile assembly plant there, but it had been laying off employees in recent years and was not very stable.

Musk wasn’t actually satisfied with the place, especially after seeing the gap when he visited Modu City, but he had no choice. In America, this was the place he found most appealing and easier to control.

Giving up the Tesla factory in Modu City was a significant loss, of course not something he wanted to do himself, but rather due to pressure from the Presidential Palace.

The Artemis program had been a mess these days, and although SpaceX had no real fault, he still went to pay close attention to it, only to end up being summoned by John’s New State Secretary Jack Sullivan.

Sullivan began by acknowledging SpaceX’s outstanding work in the Artemis program, stating that it would play a more significant role in future space missions, and then he revealed something:

At the end of the month, John would formally submit a bill to fully restore domestic manufacturing capabilities and "it will certainly pass."

This marked not only a more severe crackdown on imported goods with higher tariffs but also a limitation on domestic capital outflow, while subsidizing local manufacturing.

The automobile industry, capable of driving almost all sectors of the supply chain, would be a focal point of the new legislation.

If Tesla continued to build factories overseas for export, it would face severe sanctions from the bill and had to keep its supply chain as domestic as possible.

Of course, Sullivan didn’t ignore the disadvantages of exporting complete cars or the leading labor and logistics costs in America. Instead, he told Musk that the government would provide extremely strong subsidies.

The subsidies were of many kinds, starting with the most robust production subsidy: for every car Tesla produced locally, it would automatically receive a subsidy for half its selling price, which almost solved the disadvantage of local price inflation.

The rest were subsidies for consumers, which were even more plentiful, with a significant reduction or even partial exemption in multiple taxes including sales tax, acquisition tax, fuel tax, and license tax. Moreover, if one has only one electric vehicle registered, they could apply for a subsidy up to one-third of the car’s price.

Most of Tesla’s Modu City factory’s production capacity was actually for export to New Australia, Europe, and other countries, and now exports from the homeland would also be subsidized. The goal was to give Tesla the same advantages domestically as in Modu City, with the help of government subsidies.

Of course, it wasn’t just Tesla—all car makers and manufacturing companies in America were on the subsidy list, and it was said that just for the automobile industry alone, they were planning to spend one hundred and fifty billion US Dollars in the next fiscal year with annual increases subsequently.

After returning to Texas, Ma, in light of the recent intense developments from the Presidential Palace, believed the likelihood to be high. He suspended the progress of Modu City’s Tesla and inspected several cities, ultimately deciding to place the new factory in Arlington.

With the government’s subsidies, Tesla could go all out: even if the cars didn’t sell, there was a 50% subsidy based on the selling price. This was almost an overt message to car manufacturers that inflated prices backed by subsidies would allow them to thrive and indirectly showed how determined the policy was.

However, there was one significant difficulty on the domestic front to address: the Workers’ Association.

The car production line operated 24 hours non-stop, which became a sore point for them. General Motors’ assembly plant was plagued by frequent strikes; raising wages was a minor issue, but disruptions to the production line meant massive losses.

When he frankly expressed his concerns, William smiled and pulled a man with a big beard out of the crowd.

The latter seemed to have reached some agreement with William and, with a not-so-pleased expression, said,

"If you really can guarantee no less than 15,000 jobs, with high enough pay and no violations, I can assure you we will give 48 hours’ notice before any action to negotiate."

Looking at the bald police chief standing with crossed arms nearby, he added,

"My cooperation is for the sake of those poor unemployed people, so don’t think that just because you donate to our fund, you can boss us around."